Fire breaks out at Indian Oil depot; no casualties reported

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Last Updated: Sat, Jan 05, 2013 15:40 hrs

NEW DELHI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - A fire erupted and spread at a
fuel storage terminal of state-run Indian Oil Corp in
Hazira in Gujarat state on Saturday, a company executive said,
an incident which may force India's largest refiner to import
fuel.

No casualties were reported from the fire, whose cause was
not immediately clear. The Hazira terminal has nine storage
tanks - five gasoline and four diesel.

The tank where the blaze started had about 5,000 kilolitres
of gasoline, almost half of its capacity, when it caught fire.

"Because of wind the fire has spread to another petrol
tank. We can see smoke coming out of second petrol tank as well.
It had substantial volumes," said N Srikumar, executive director
at the company.

Srikumar had said earlier that Indian Oil was looking into
the cause of the fire that broke out in the afternoon and that
authorities were trying to cool the other tankers at the depot
by sprinkling water on them.

Indian Oil, which meets about half of the country's domestic
fuel demand, along with its subsidiary, Chennai Petroleum Corp
(CHPC.NS), control 10 refineries accounting for about 31 percent
of the national capacity of 4.3 million barrels per day (bpd).
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Arup Roychoudhury;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)